Clifford Chance

I am a Senior Lawyer and head of the Slovak Desk team at Clifford Chance. I graduated from the Faculty of Law at Charles University in Prague. I also had the opportunity to study at Utrecht University in the Netherlands as part of the Erasmus programme. Following my final exams and master's thesis defence, I joined Clifford Chance in 2007 as a Junior Lawyer in the Corporate Practice, where I worked for the Slovak Desk as well as on numerous Czech projects. The first year was very challenging as I was still studying the LLM programme while working.

The work

What I like most about being a Lawyer is that I get to work with interesting, skilful and inspiring people, both clients and my colleagues at Clifford Chance. I often work on projects that involve colleagues from Corporate, Banking/Finance and Real Estate teams. Each team works a little differently, each department has different skills, experience, different perspectives and different approaches to law. So, I enjoy the variety and diversity of the work.

Culture and environment 

In my opinion, the atmosphere and culture are simply wonderful. Of course, there are situations when it is more challenging, when you are under pressure, when you are working on a difficult and complicated project or transaction. But in general, I think the culture is truly welcoming and open, people are friendly and willing to solve problems and discuss things if we have a different opinion. For example, even if I ever messed something up or made a mistake, it has always been pointed out to me in a friendly way and I have never had to worry or stress out about it.

Learning and key skills

First and foremost, it is definitely working with people and communication, both with colleagues at Clifford Chance and with our clients. I think this is one of my strengths. Work for our clients is really very interesting and I enjoy it very much. And the other skill that I have definitely improved while working at Clifford Chance is time management. I have learned to work under pressure and organise my time better.

My advice

Probably just be yourself as much as possible and keep it within your professional career. Also, it is good to have something that you enjoy outside of work, some hobbies, interests, favourite activities that will make it easier for you to find the right balance between your personal life and a demanding professional life. A person should have someone or something that makes them happy and satisfied in life. Because if someone is happy in their personal life, they are often happy at work too.